#txtober

7.02am

“Hey, random question. Why does this tradition have to be exactly the same every year? Why does it matter if I meet you at 6am? What if I meet you at 6.10am? In that case, will you stop being friends with me?” You teased, trudging alongside Kai on a rugged concrete path.

Kai sighed, tilting his head to look at you with his beautiful, brown eyes. “It matters because it takes 15 minutes to walk from your neighborhood’s park to Mr. Roger’s pumpkin patch, and he opens at 6.20am exactly, every single Halloween. If you get to the park at 6.10am, we’ll reach his pumpkin patch at 6.30am. By then, all the competitive mothers who want their child to have the best pumpkin will have taken all the round, orange, hard-enough-to-carve-but-not-so-hard-that-carving-becomes-a-chore kind of pumpkins, and we’ll be stuck with the oblong shaped, ugly pumpkins.”

“Then why aren’t we running? At this rate, we will only get rotten mushy pumpkins.”

“We aren’t running because you have tiny legs and we won’t make it that far before you get tired. I don’t want you to get hurt, shortie.” Kai teased, sticking out his tongue while leaning over you in an attempt to intimidate you.

At this point, he was only a few inches away from you, and the both of you were so close that you could peck his lips. As much as you wanted to, you resisted the urge to lean closer towards him and instead laughed nervously as he smiled at you. This action only made your heart beat faster. It didn’t help that he just said that he cared about you, and despite the statement being so lighthearted, it warmed your heart to know that he prioritized your well-being over pumpkins.

Your heart was thumping faster and faster, and you were turning into an embarrassed mess. Cheeks hot and red, eyes darting everywhere. Come to think of it, that plant behind Kai looks interesting, how come you’ve never seen it before?

The awkward tension was getting quite unbearable at this point, and you couldn’t take it anymore. “I-uh...we…um….uh...race you to the pumpkin patch! Yeah..uh..let's go!” You nervously muttered, trying to sound confident. You immediately ran opposite the direction of where the both of you were supposed to go.

“Y/N! The pumpkin patch is this way!” Kai confusedly shouted. “You’ve been to the pumpkin patch multiple times! Where are you even going?”

You were getting out of breath, but you would only stop running once you were out of Kai’s sight. “Uh...I’ll take the longer route! Yeah...I’ll meet you there...uh...don’t follow me!” You turned around and started running backwards, so you could see if Kai would start following you.

“Y/N! Stop running, wait! No! Look behind you!”

The last thing you saw was Kai’s figure running towards you before your head hit the ground with a loud thud.

7.46am

“Ugh, what do you want? Why did you wake me up? And why is Y/N sleeping in your arms?”

Kai was at Beomgyu’s house, holding your unconscious self bridal-style in his arms. You had tripped over a brick ledge all because your idiotic self was too panicked with the thought of kai finding out that you liked him.

Kai sighed, “Look hyung, I’m sorry if this is a huge hassle, or that I may be disturbing your 8-hour beauty sleep, but Y/N fell down, and she isn’t asleep. I think she got knocked out.”

Beomgyu started frantically waving his hands and shouting incoherently. “Oh my gosh, are you serious? If she’s knocked out, we have to go to the hospital! We have to call 911! What if she doesn’t wake up?? Kai, why did you bring her here, this isn’t my problem! Oh my goodness, I’m not even kidding, wh-“

While Beomgyu was going full-on emergency mode, you had regained your senses and was starting to stir. Maybe it was because Beomgyu’s panicking actions had woken you up, or that you had a sixth sense blaring huge warning signs all across your brain because you were in Kai’s arms. Wait, you were in Kai’s arms?

You slowly fluttered your eyes open to see Kai looking confusedly at a screaming Beomgyu, who seemed so sure that you would never wake up. As you laid in the Kai’s arms, you gazed at his ethereal features. Brown eyes with gorgeous golden specks in them, wavy brown hair, his cute little boopable nose, he was a literal angel who looked perfect from every angle. Just then, said angel looked down at you.

“Beomgyu-hyung! She’s awake! Her eyes are open! Why is she smiling? Hi Y/N, good morning, why are you smiling? Her cheeks are really red too, she looks like she’s drunk! HAHA! Y/N, Y/N?”

It took you a few minutes to register that Kai was talking to you, and that he was indeed, calling your name. By the time you tried opening your mouth to respond, gross-man-Beomgyu was already looking over at you with utter disgust and relief clouding his face.

“Oh, good. I thought she was going to die. Okay, now just in case idiot Y/N stumbles and falls again, she should rest here. You guys can leave when she feels better. Ugh, the things I do for you guys. Sacrificing my 8-hour beauty sleep, my privacy, and most importantly, my lovely couch, that disgusting Y/N is going to lay on.”

You once again came back from Kai Dreamland when you realized that Beomgyu had just insulted you. About to rebut, you remembered that you were still in Kai’s arms and that he was starting to carry you to the couch. Feeling the heat that was rising up your cheeks, you immediately tried squirming out of Kai’s arms.

You tried lifting your legs off his left arm and grabbing on his right one for support. “Uh, Kai, actually, I feel better already. I can walk myself to the couch, yeah, thanks.”

Kai stifled a laugh and bemusedly stared at you. “Y/N, you just fell down and knocked yourself out. The couch isn’t too far, if I can carry you to Beomgyu’s house then I can surely carry you to the living hall.”

“No, um, I’m good. I’m independent!” As you fumbled out of Kai’s grasp and began attempting to get to the couch, you thought to yourself. Y/N, how stupid. Who uses ‘I’m independent’ as an excuse? Way to blow it in front of your 10-year-crush.

Meanwhile, Beomgyu, who had been grabbing water, immediately put the cup down and ran towards you, who was struggling to even walk in a straight line. Grabbing your arms and dragging you to the couch, he tutted. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Y/N, you really be walking like a drunk man at 4am. Why did Kai stop carrying you? He shouldn’t have put you down, for goodness sake, you nearly knocked down my mom’s sacred glass vase with your swinging beanstalk arms!”

Kai lifted both of his hands in defense. “I didn’t put her down. I insisted on carrying her all the way to the couch but she flailed around in my arms and said she could walk just fine. I’m starting to think that she might have an actual brain injury.”

You, being perfectly fine and functioning decently with your 3 brain cells, had only gotten dizzy from the sudden shift of laying down to standing up. You had laid down on the couch and was starting to drift off to sleep. The last thing you heard was Kai and Beomgyu giggling about something related to brains, but you were too tired to ask them about that inside joke.

8.40 am

“So...have you told her?”

Beomgyu and Kai were sitting on the floor in the living hall, with you fast asleep on the couch behind them. There were cards messily sprawled across the floor, and 2 cup noodles on a chair placed in front of them.

Kai sighed. He discreetly held up his uno cards in front of his face to block the reddening that was beginning to form on the apples of his cheeks.

“Told who what?”

“Oh, stop acting so oblivious. Ya know, have you told Y/N that you like her?”

Kai felt his cheeks heat up even more and he embarrassingly smacked Beomgyu’s arm. “Hyung, are you dumb? Y/N’s right behind us. She probably just heard you say that. Plus, did you forget about the very special Halloween plan happening in like, 10 hours?” He quickly turned around to see if you were actually asleep and not just getting some shut-eye. You were definitely deep into your slumber, hair all messed up and your body spread across the couch in an very uncomfortable looking position. However, to Kai, you looked extremely cute. He couldn’t resist the urge to smile ear to ear. Kai wanted to boop your nose right then and there, and was fighting hard to resist this temptation in fears of waking you up. He removed his baby blue hoodie and gently placed it on your sleeping figure, doing his best to not wake you up.

Beomgyu, who was looking disgustedly at Kai’s chival gesture and his beaming face, made a heart with his hands between the both of you. “Wow, you are whipped for Y/N. Anyways, she’s clearly asleep. She looks like a pig! And it wouldn’t matter if she heard me say that you have a crush on her. She clearly likes you too.”

Kai scowled at Beomgyu’s insult, and sat back down. “First of all, do not say that Y/N looks like a pig, she’s gorgeous and way prettier than you. Secondly, no! She definitely doesn’t like me that way! She probably thinks my Halloween obsession is weird, and I’m probably not the type of guy she likes. She likes ‘hot’ dudes.” Kai gagged when he said that statement.“She probably likes Yeonjun or something, they would be cute together.”

Beomgyu rolled his eyes and declared. “Have you seen the way she looks at you? Her eyes sparkle and she awes at you like you're the only thing that matters on this planet! Heck, you probably are the only thing that matters to her on this planet.” Beomgyu sighed, rolling his eyes. “You two are so oblivious.”

“Let’s divert the topic, this is making me flustered and I don’t like it.” Kai said, as he picked a draw 8 card from the fan of uno cards that was still covering his burning red cheeks. “I was initially planning to just skip you, but because you brought this topic up, draw 8.”

Beomgyu innocently smiled, then put down a draw 4 card. He looked back up at Kai, stuck his tongue out, and then cheekily laughed at the fuming boy.

Kai’s cheeks were glowing red again, but this time, it was for an entire different reason.

October 31 2020 | 8.10am -> October 31 2009 | 9.33am

While the boy you were in love with and the boy you wanted to punch into a different dimension were talking about you, you were deep inside Kai Dreamland.

Almost every night, you dreamed about dating him. Being able to feed each other food, holding each other’s hands, cuddling, and being able to do ‘justcouplethings” with him. This dream, however, was very different.

Unbeknownst to you, a past flashback was about to happen, and it would make you finally realize why you liked Kai so much.

You were looking at your very young self in third person, who was wearing a weird wire contraption shaped like a sphere. Draped on top of the contraption was a dirty brown blanket, and stuck on top of it were what were supposed to be sprinkles and icing sugar. The sprinkles and icing sugar were made of horribly cut colored paper, and they looked like they were on the brink of dropping off because of the faulty glue gun job that was barely keeping the whole costume together. You had your purple Dora backpack in your right hand and your left hand was lifted up, about to knock on a wooden birch door with the placard “Class 1C” right in the center of the door.

Oh, no. Oh, no no. Present Y/N knew what was coming. You hated this moment so, so, much, because you knew what was behind that innocent-looking door. Out of all things, did I really have to dream about the most humiliating moment of my life?

Young Y/N finally knocked with all her strength on the wooden door, and a young adult wearing a witch hat that did not match her professional blazer and work skirt opened the door.

“Hello, dear! You must be Y/N L/N, our new student! I see you that you must’ve got the memo to dress up. I love your costume. My name is Ms. Kim. Do come inside!” Ms. Kim flashed an exaggerated smile, and gestured for you to come in.

Your younger self was very oblivious to the fact that Ms. Kim did not like your costume one bit just based on her fake smile and the giggle she tried to hide. Nonetheless, you confidently strutted in the decorated classroom, unaware that your sprinkles and iced sugar pieces were starting to fall off, leaving a trail of cut colored paper from the door to where you now stood, which was in the center of the classroom.

A few classmates had already started to snicker, proudly pointing their stubby fingers at the trail of papers, and the brown sphere you were wearing, then bursting into immature giggles. However, you continued to lift your head up high.

“Class, class, settle down. We have a new student. Y/N, do introduce yourself.” Ms. Kim announced. The high-pitched laughter echoing from the audience died down.

“Hello, class of 1C! My name is Y/N L/N, and I am proud to be here today! I will do my best in this class!” You beamed, and the class burst into booming laughter. Chaos erupted, making the giggling just now nothing compared to this event.

Paper balls and pencils were thrown, and the monstrous classmates could no longer keep their childish giggling to themselves.

“She looks like a dirt ball! She looks like a dirt ball!” A loud shout emitted from the back of the class, and soon, everyone else caught on.

“Dirt ball! Dirt ball! Y/N is a dirt ball!” The class hooted, enjoying this Halloween party way more than they should.

Ms. Kim sighed, and looked down at your fragile figure who was on the verge of tears. “Class, if you do not quiet down and respect Y/N, we will cancel this party. All of you can go back to doing your addition and subtraction.”

Immediately, the mean teasing and laughter died down, and you shuffled your way to your assigned seat, leaving a trail of more cut colored paper. Once you put your backpack behind your seat and sat down, you put your head in your arms, not bothering to look at the wavy-haired boy leaning his head on his elbow, smiling innocently at you. Noticing your sad self, he immediately placed it upon himself to cheer you up.

“Hello, you’re Y/N, right? I’m Kai. I really love your costume! Is it a cake pop?”

Kai really did love your costume. He liked the fact that anyone could tell that you had worked so hard to make it. Compared to his target-bought jellyfish costume, it was a piece of majestic art.

You immediately sat up, all signs of sadness gone. You were happy and satisfied that at least one person knew what your costume was. The hard work you spent gluing on the paper and the hard work your mother spent looking for a wire contraction that would fit you had finally been paid off.

“Yes! It’s a cake pop. I love your jellyfish costume too!” You smiled, revealing one of your missing front teeth.

“Nah, my costume isn’t as good as yours. I'm sorry if the class was so mean to you, I think your outfit looked great. In fact, my mom is having a small Halloween gathering this week, would you want to come? There will be lots of food, and I got my dad to build…”

At this exact moment, your past self realized that you liked this boy. You didn’t care if you married him, or if you just stayed friends, you wanted to be with him through thick and thin. For your present self, this just proved that you loved him more than he would ever know.

October 31 2020 | 10.35am

“...ding, ding, ding, ding…”

Ughhhh. What is going on with my phone?

“...ding, ding, ding!”

As soon as the ringing from your phone stopped, you immediately dozed back to sleep.

“Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding…”

“ARGHHH! Kai, can you please help me check my phone! It's ringing like it's a bomb about to detonate!”

No response.

“Kai? Gyu?”

As you worriedly stood up and glanced around bemusedly, the baby blue hoodie that Kai had carefully draped onto you slid off, and dropped at your feet. You noticed it and picked up the familiar looking sweater.

You suddenly realized that this hoodie belonged to the one and only Kai Kamal Huening, and your heart started pounding when you came to terms with the fact that he had just draped one of his favorite hoodies onto you. You scrunched the sweater up in your hands, and wore it over your graphic pumpkin shirt (which was your “costume”). It smelled exactly like Kai, and with the faint scent of his maple autumn leaf perfume (that he only used in October) wavering in the air, you felt like you were in Kai Heaven.

However, the annoying dings in the background didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, so you finally addressed the noise by grabbing your phone from your bag on the dining table.

You groaned as your phone screen lit up with an incoming call from Yeonjun.

“Hi, Yeonjun. I don’t think I can come.”

“What, why?” Yeonjun dragged, the ‘y’, sounding like a whining baby. “We’re doing a haunted house. All the cool kids are gonna be there. Are you not a cool kid?”

‘Well, number one, I'm not going cause haunted houses are scary. Number two, I’m not cool Jun, you know that. Number three, Kai and I were supposed to do our yearly tradition, but I fell down this morning. I think we’re going to continue it afterwards, and I don’t think Kai likes parties that much. Speaking of Kai, do you know where him and Beomgyu are? I’m in Gyu’s house by myself right now, and when I woke up they weren’t there anymore, are they with you?”

Yeonjun coughed from the other end of the line and seemed to hesitate before replying. “No, I don’t know where Kai and Beomgyu are. But I think Kai wants to come to the party, he said he would, Y/Nieeeee, please come, it’ll be fun.”

You were about to reconsider your choice and dial Kai asking if he wanted to come, when you heard an oddly familiar high pitched dolphin laughter occurring from the other end of the line, followed by a loud shout of glee.

“Wait, Yeonjun. Isn’t that Kai? Is he with you?”

“No. Kai isn’t with me. I don’t know where he is. I really don’t. I think I saw him yesterday? Uh…”

Yeonjun muted the call and left your curious self waiting on the line.

“Okay, I’m back, sorry, technical problems. But yeah, don’t know where Kai is. Totally don’t know.”

“Yeonjun, I can tell when you’re lying.”

Yeonjun sighed from the other end of the line.

“I’m coming over.” You said, as you ended the call, furious and confused as to why he lied to you about such a trivial matter. At least Kai is safe, you thought to yourself, as you grabbed your bag roughly. You were about to stalk out of the house, when you remembered that you were still wearing Kai’s baby blue hoodie that looked extremely over-sized on you. You considered wearing it to Yeonjun’s house, then decided against the decision in fear that Kai might get the wrong idea.

As best friends, the both of you didn’t exchange much skinship or share many things, so this was your first time wearing Kai’s hoodie. You didn’t want him to find out that you like him, and was planning to keep your sacred secret for as long as you could.

After taking off Kai’s sweater, you folded it into a little bundle and shoved it in your bag, just in case he might want it back at Yeonjun’s house. Finally, you walked out of your house, still curious and disappointed as to why a close friend would lie to you about such a small issue.

11.13am

Instead of going to Yeonjun’s huge house, you were now seated across an anxious, fidgeting Kai, in Magic Island, a homely cafe that the both of you would go every halloween for their special rainbow halloween-themed cupcakes. Kai had requested the both of you to meet at this cafe instead of Yeonjun’s house for who knows what, but surprisingly, you didn’t question his rushed and breathless statement when he called you as you were walking out. In the call, he anxiously explained that he would explain in the cafe, and begged you to not go to Yeonjun’s house. Even though this statement only made you more curious as to what they could and were doing there, you reluctantly obliged and began walking in the opposite direction to Magic Island.

And right now, you were seated on a very comfortable sofa with a witch cushion behind you and a pumpkin-themed cover draped over your seat. Around you, there were assorted forms of Halloween decorations ranging from black and orange themed hanging tinsels to the cafe’s signature baby witch statue that took its place at the shop’s entrance.

There was an awkward silence beginning to form between the both of you, so after glancing at everything else but Kai, you finally tried staring him down as sternly as you could, trying to show that you wanted an explanation.

“Kai, why would Yeonjun lie to me about such a trivial matter? What are you guys hiding from me?”

“No, you don’t understa-“

“I thought friends were supposed to be truthful to each other. Am I not trustworthy? I don’t remember doing anything that broke your trust.” It was getting harder and harder to control the words spouting out of your mouth at this point. You were curious and disappointed, and he had been acting shady recently. Kai has never left you alone so randomly, and to your knowledge, none of your other close friends have ever lied to you about his whereabouts.

“Look, wait! Don’t interrupt me! I can see your eyes getting unnaturally huge, and you only do that when you’re about to interrupt someone. Here, let me cut to the chase, I, uh, we, Beomgyu and I, we were at Yeonjun’s house to help him prepare for the party.”

He is a horrible liar, you thought to yourself. Nevertheless, you let him continue to see what else he could spur up.

“We uh, we went to, his house because he needed help preparing, and you know, Yeonjun’s house is huge, so like, obviously, one person couldn’t just decorate the place himself, plus, we’re helping him for the haunted house too, so uh, we-“

“Kai, you're still not answering my question. If it was nothing, why did Yeonjun lie to me about your whereabouts?” You rebutted, impatient and wanting the answer to your question quickly.

“Fine, fine. I’ll tell you. I really can’t keep it anymore. Y/N, the reason why I’ve been acting so shady, was because I was planning a-”

“SURPRISE!” A loud chorused shout echoed from the entrance of the cafe. As you turned back, you saw Yeonjun, Beomgyu, and Taehyun strutting in. Yeonjun was holding a few helium balloons with the words “Happy Birthday” and “Merry Christmas” printed on them in jazzy handwriting, and Taehyun was beside him lighting up candles on a cheap walmart chocolate cake that probably tasted like garbage. Beomgyu was trailing behind the two boys with a cheesy smile and jazz hands. Turning back, you glanced at a bemused and shocked Kai, who, seeing that you were staring at him suspiciously, covered his previous expression with a shy giggle and a smile equally as fake as Beomgyu’s.

Taehyun put down the lit up cake on the candy corn colored table and Yeonjun handed you the Target-bought balloons.

“Yeonjun lied about where Kai and I were because he didn’t want to spoil this surprise, right, Yeonjun?” Beomgyu said while maintaining his ear-to-ear smile.

Yeonjun glanced back at Beomgyu, who was still smiling but now with his eyes wide open and blinking rapidly as if he was trying to send morse code. Yeonjun responded with a small smirk and looked back at you. “Yes, we spent the morning at my house buying these things and preparing it for you. It was Kai’s idea, wasn’t it?” Yeonjun winked at Kai and finger gunned him. Wow, Jun, way to be cringey, you thought to yourself.

If this “surprise” were for any other sane person, they would’ve obviously realized that it was some last-minute pull together and would immediately called them out on it. But you, being head-over heels for Kai, felt touched that he had planned a surprise for you (and only you) and completely ignored all the screaming signs that it wasn’t an actual surprise, and then it wasn’t just a surprise for you, but for him too. Nonetheless, Taehyun’s idea of this cover-up was working perfectly and had completely erased all your previous suspicions of what Kai had been doing before.

However, your oblivious self was curious about only one thing. “Hmm, I have to ask about something.”

The four boys started breaking out in cold sweat, but Taehyun kept his cool, and managed to ignore the panic boiling inside. He calmly asked, “What are you curious about?”

“I would like to know why the balloons Yeonjun gave me say ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Merry Christmas’ on them, it is certainly not my birthday today and Christmas is in two months.”

In order to break the awkward tension rising up in the room, Beomgyu finally spoke up. “Oh, uh, a-about t-that-”

“It doesn’t matter!” Kai clapped his hands loudly and stood up, “this surprise was made for you to be happy anyway! Do whatever you want with it!” After boldly exclaiming this statement, he turned around and mouthed a word of thanks at his three friends, before turning back to you. You were busy sucking helium from the balloons and did not see the interaction that just went down.

“Kai, can you hear it? I sound like a chipmunk!” You innocently smiled at him and sucked even more air out from the deflating “Merry Christmas” balloon.

Kai felt his heart start beating just a little faster, and he laughed quietly, before walking over to join you in your little helium endeavor.

The three boys saw this as an opportunity to step out, and waved goodbye to a giggling Kai and his future girlfriend. After leaving the cafe, they burst into a fit of laughs and fake gags.

“Nice idea Taehyun, they’re a cute bunch, aren’t they?” Yeonjun giggled as he fist-bumped a Taehyun who was fake gagging.

“Wait till Y/N sees what we have planned for her later, then maybe she won’t act so ‘cute’ anymore.” Taehyun said, laughing as he stared once more through the window of Magic Island at Kai (attempting to) impersonate a gorilla and you in a heap of laughter.

‘Race you to the house! Losers!” Beomgyu teased as the three of them started sprinting back to Yeonjun’s house, where the real party would begin.

5.34pm

You were standing in front of Yeonjun’s house, no, house wasn’t the right word to describe it, it was a huge, tall, extravagant, white mansion. Said white mansion was now decorated with a  wide assortment of Halloween decorations that ranged from fake graveyards that were stuck into the soil, live-sized skeletons, realistic looking decapitated heads, and a huge amount of gruesome plastic bones scattered on the entrance of the house. The roof of the mansion had orange lights and actual fire burning, probably to make the illusion of something scary, but you couldn’t point out what that seemed to be.

After the questionable event that occurred in Magic Island Cafe, the both of you decided to continue with the tradition: doing everything on the list from baking ghost cookies, watching Halloween movies together, carving pumpkins (even if they were super mushy this year), and last of all, trying out costumes.

Usually, the both of you would go to the small homely costume store that opened on the other end of town and try out the wackiest costumes, knowing that the both of you weren’t going to wear them out anytime soon. However, today was different. You were now about to face the tons of popular kids at your school, and you were dressed in an orange pumpkin costume and an idiotic pumpkin hat. To be frank, you looked like a cutie, and Kai knew it. He had made you wear this outfit to the party, and he matched with you by wearing the same pumpkin costume, the only difference being that his was black. Obviously, Kai wanted the both of you to match so that you guys could look like a couple, and so everyone would know that you were his. Your oblivious self however, did not comprehend the true intentions of his actions, and could only think about how cute Kai looked in his round black pumpkin costume.

As the both of you admired the scary decorations adorning the entrance of the mansion, and the menacing fire burning on the top, you turned to Kai and smirked. “Wow, Yeonjun and his team really went all out this year, huh?”

“Yeah...I didn’t think it would be this great…” Kai said with his mouth agape, still busy staring at the entire mansion from top to bottom. Honestly, he wasn’t expecting Yeonjun to put in this much time and effort into his little idea, but he was appreciative of his hyung and hoped that everything would go as planned.

Just then, the two enormous doors to the inside of the mansion opened, and someone in wearing a red sweater motioned for the two of you to come inside.

“Kai! I haven’t seen you for so long! Come inside!”

That girl was gorgeous. The epitome of all popular girls.

Kai smiled softly and ran up to her, giving her a warm hug while still wearing his pumpkin costume. At this sight, a tinge of jealousy sparked within you, but you did your best to hide it. Kai and this girl would be cute together, you thought to yourself. Two popular kids, one pretty, one handsome, it's no wonder i'm no match for Kai.

You walked up the steps afterwards and gave her a small nod as a greeting. She stayed at the entrance to greet other guests, but she kept eyeing you for some weird reason.

As you stepped in with Kai, you suddenly stopped in your tracks. Letting him trail in front of you, you awed at your surroundings. Oh my gosh. Even though you had been friends with Yeonjun since middle school, this was your first time visiting his house and you were shocked to say the least. Bright orange and grey fairy lights were placed on the extremely high ceiling of the house, and there was green slime hanging around the huge glass chandelier. The living hall was almost as big as your school cafeteria, with a long glass table at the corner filled with halloween themed snacks. There was a cauldron, an actual cauldron, with gory fruit punch, eyeball cake pops, spider pancakes, and so much more. Any halloween-themed food you named was probably on the table, and if it wasn’t, it could be whipped up within an hour by the private chef on hand.

Just then, Yeonjun came up to you. “So, how is it?”

Trying to hide your amusement and shock unlike Kai, who was hyperventilating over all the decorations and prancing around like a kid with too much candy, you merely responded. “It's okay, I guess.”

“Its okay, IT'S OKAY? Do you know how many days it took for us to make this for you-”

“HEY Y/N! Long time no see!” A hand was placed on Yeonjun’s shoulder, and he was shoved aside abruptly. Replacing him was Soobin.

“Omg! Soobin! It's been a long time. How’s it going?” You squealed, as you embraced the lanky boy.

You hadn’t realized that Kai was missing because you were too busy catching up with Soobin, and your oblivious self didn’t realize the lack of people in Yeonjun’s obnoxious living hall to realize that this was not a normal party.

7.07pm

“Alright, next participants! Kai and Y/N!” The staff at the front-desk of Haunted Matchmakers called out.

The both of you exchanged questioning looks at each other as you felt multiple pairs of eyes drawn to the both of your figures.

“Why were we the only ones that he called out?” You whispered to Kai, not expecting an answer.

“Probably because together, we’re special.” Kai turned his head and winked at you cutely.

Thank goodness the two of you were still in the dark waiting room, so he was unable to see your burning cheeks.

Little did you know, Kai’s cheeks were just as fiery as yours, if not hotter.

“Alright, you ready?” The waiting room assistant asked cheekily, as he shifted his gaze between the both of you, and gestured for the two of you to enter the menacing rusty entrance.

“Yes!” Kai shouted, and pumped his fist into the air.

You, on the other hand, was a scaredy-cat, and without thinking twice, you grasped onto Kai’s hand tightly, and shifted so close to him that both of your shoulders overlapped each other.

Kai could feel your nervousness, and he was nervous too, but for an entire different reason. After you grabbed his hand, his heart started hammering in his chest and his hands started becoming clammy.

Not wanting to waste his time, Kai screamed in glee and nodded at the assistant, who pushed open the rusty wooden door. He was about to walk in while still holding your hand, when he realized that you weren’t budging.

Kai was afraid that you were going to back out of the haunted house, and as he glanced back, he was met with a teary-eyed you, shivering and trying to wipe your stubborn tears with the sleeve of your pumpkin costume.

“Hey, Y/N, what's wrong?” Kai immediately crouched in front of you so that the both of you are at eye level. land you sniffle even more.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey. Y/N. I know you’re scared, but it’s alright. I’ll be with you every step of the way, okay?” Kai coaxed, running his thumb over your intertwined hands.

You looked up at Kai with your watery eyes, and nodded ever so slightly. Kai swore his heart could’ve melted right there and then.

Just then, you realized that there were people lining up behind you. The people, who, surprisingly, were patiently waiting as you and Kai shared your cheesy moment. Realizing that you were being an inconvenience for their halloween experience, you straightened up, fixed your fallen hair, and nodded at Kai as firmly as you possibly could.

With the rusty door ajar, the both of you confidently stepped inside. Your hand was engulfed in Kai’s, and as long as you were with him, the both of you would be able to get through anything together.

7.34pm

Take deep breaths. In, out, in out. Hee, hoo, hee, hoo. Y/N, you can do this. They’re just humans dressed in manufactured plastic, with a face full of over-the-top makeup. Remember what you said before, just now? When you’re with Kai, you can get through anythi-

“AHHHHHHHH!”

Your thoughts were interrupted by yet another piercing dolphin scream from the two of you after being jump-scared by the long-haired lady with a bad case of smallpox.

You had initially thought that Kai was the brave one here, but now that the both of you were finally experiencing the actual haunted house, you couldn’t decide who was more of the scaredy-cat.

Kai had already known about this plan and played the biggest part in the creation of Haunted Matchmakers. However, he was still scared because...well….it was you he was going to surprise...and, he’s still a baby at heart.

“Kai, I don’t think I can do this. I wanna go back to the entrance.” Your shaky voice shook him out of his thoughts.

“No, no, it's okay! We just finished the third room! We’re almost there! There’s only one more room left.”

“Wait...how do you know the amount of rooms this haunted house has?” Finally, your oblivious self had started to pick up on Kai’s many mishaps.

“Well, I, uh, I, I asked the admin staff when you went to the bathroom!” Kai exclaimed.

Suddenly, you realized that it was quiet. Too quiet. The eeriness was scaring you. There was no more haunted house music, no jump-scares, nobody else with the both of you.

You shakily clung onto Kai, hooking both of your arms between one of his and pressing your cheek into his neck.

“Kai, it doesn’t feel right. This place doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean? Of course it doesn’t feel right, we’re in a haunted house!”

“No...I mean, like, it doesn’t even feel like a haunted house anymore, it feels like something is…” You trailed off on your speech as you spotted a small Polaroid of a selfie of you and Kai taken many moons ago at Soobin’s birthday party.

When you were too busy stuck in your place as you tried processing what a picture of the both of you was doing on the wall of a haunted house, Kai had disappeared. He was there for a second, and suddenly, your arms were clinging onto nothing but air.

“Kai? Kai? Kai?! Don’t scare me like this! You know I hate jump-scares! You promised me that you would be with me every step of the way! Kai, stop playing around!  This isn’t funny anymore!” Tears were threatening to fall out of your eyes, and you started rapidly blinking and looking back and forth to see if Kai would be hiding behind a statue or corner just to scare you.

But no, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere.

Back in the control room, Kai frantically paced back and forth as Yeonjun stared through the screen at you, who was crouched down and silently sobbing. The sniffles you tried to hide echoed through the corridor, and Yeonjun knew that doing nothing wasn’t going to help.

Grabbing the walkie-talkie from the girl with the red sweater, who was sitting next to him looking at other screens on an armchair while mindlessly fiddling with said walkie-talkie in her hands, he turned the knob to channel 5 and spoke into it rapidly.

“Haeun, plan B. Get back inside to corridor 2, where Y/N is, and lead her to the beginning of the trail. This surprise won’t work if Y/N doesn’t start moving.”

7.42pm

You were sitting down on the ground, head in your arms, sobbing aimlessly as you thought to yourself. What kind of sick joke is this? Why isn’t anyone coming to scare me? Where did Kai go, why did he just leave with no explanation? Shouldn't someone come now to tell me to stand up and move on so that they can keep the line going?

Speak of the devil, you felt a light pat on the shoulder. Thinking that it was staff, you looked up to be met with a gory, bloody, devil mask. Squealing and screaming, you started running away, pushing off the hands that landed on your shoulders. Suddenly, said mask was removed, and you were met with a very familiar face. Haeun? Lee Haeun?

Lee Haeun was a close friend you met outside of school in a theme park when you were by yourself. She wasn’t close to anyone here, and she was one of the last people you expected to show up here.

“Hey, Y/N! Surprise, surprise, I'm here! Sorry for scaring you,  I forgot to remove my mask!’”

“Lee Haeun...what are you doing here? Wha-”

“I’ll explain later, for now, just keep moving forward. Promise you, there’ll be no jumpscares, no nothing. Just lots of love.” She winked at you, and she had pushed you forward without you noticing, so now you were standing in front of a closed door that had a purple letter stuck onto it.

“Open it,” Haeun gestured, and pat your back twice before leaving.

“What…?” Nonetheless, you listened to her, and grabbed the folded purple letter, carefully unfolding it to reveal Kai’s handwriting:

Dear sweet Y/N,

Hi, this is Kai. I have a feeling that you’re going to be really shocked and surprised right now. ‘What? This is a haunted house, why is a letter here? Also, where is Kai? I'm gonna slap that son of a…’, anyways, yes, I know that’s what you’re thinking right now, but trust me, it’ll all make sense as soon as you walk through this door. If you thought that I disappeared into thin air, don’t worry. I’m in a control room, and I can see you right now.

Upon reading this sentence, you looked around frantically and spotted a small camera with a red blinking light. You cheekily waved at it before looking back at the letter.

About this whole event...well...firstly, if you couldn’t tell already, this haunted house isn’t real. We set it up, yes, Y/N, and if you’re here reading this, that means everything is going to plan. I knew your oblivious self wouldn’t find out ehehe! However, I couldn’t have done this large-scale event myself, you see, I only have four close friends: Yeonjun, Soobin, Beomgyu, and Taehyun, and all of them helped me out on this large-scale project. No, Y/N, I didn’t forget about you (I can practically read your thoughts right now!). You see Y/N, we’re not friends, you’re not my best friend, you’re my..ne. You’re myne. You’re mine. Ugh, I’m going to shut up now. Open the door and see for yourself, beautiful Y/N.

Lots, and lots, and lots of love,

Kai ;)

You were appalled and bashful to say the least. Wait, this can’t be? This isn’t, this isn’t what I think it is. No way. He also just called me beautiful. Me, beautiful?

For your information, Y/N, you are beautiful. You’re gorgeous, more gorgeous than that girl in red, or whatever.

You carefully folded the letter and put it in the pocket of your costume, and nervously pushed open the door to reveal...Soobin.

Oh, Soobin. What’s he doing here?

Soobin was mischievously smiling at you, while gesturing with his hands to literally everything else besides him.

Only when you stopped open-mouthed gaping at the boy, you looked around and realized the wallpaper was...interesting. There were zillions of pictures of you and Kai, all from when you met, to just 3 days ago, glued to all 4 sides of the room, covering basically every spot of the wall until you couldn't even tell the color of the room itself. Cute little pumpkin fairy lights were hung, giving the room a warm orange glow. Soft and calming Halloween decorations and statues were situated around, and you spotted the same little witch statue as the one in the entrance of Magic Island Cafe. Wow, Kai, has really been focusing on his symbolism lessons in english class.

You walked every inch of the room, and you realized that all of the pictures on the left were when the both of you first met, and as they continued on to the right, the pictures taken became more and more recent, and at the end of the room were pictures of the both of you just this year.

Soobin snapped you out of your little room tour when he walked to the side of a brown cauldron, grimaced at it, and turned back to you with a plastic smile.

“Uh, stick your hand in it.”

You tilted your head in confusion as you went over to where he was and looked over the eerie looking cauldron. It was glowing, and was neon green. You were half expecting something to pop out to scare you. You turned back to Soobin.

“No.”

“Come, on! It's part of the process, ya know? To get things rolling.”

‘What, that's not a valid reason for me to stick my hand into something so gross. What am I gonna get out of it?”

Soobin smirked. “You'll get Kai’s love.”

As you felt a blush tinting the apple of your cheeks, you immediately stuck your hand into what you thought was liquid. It was definitely not green-colored water, it was green-colored Jello. You felt a hard plate, and was about to remove your hand from the gruesome, slimy solid, when Soobin wrapped his fingers around your arm and gestured for you to lift whatever you had grabbed.

What you pulled up was not a plate, it was a picture frame. Inside said picture frame was a photo of a memory you wanted to forget forever. It was a picture of you and Kai, you in your hideous cake pop costume and Kai in his cute colorful jellyfish costume. The picture was taken by the both of your moms after the first day of school. Your mother, seeing that you had only made one friend, wanted to cherish the sacred moment. In said photo, both of your arms were slung over each other and your heads were leaning against each other. Kai had a crooked smile on his face, and you were happy as you could ever be.

On the frame were 4 words written in Kai’s writing with a sharpie. Said four words were enough to make you tear up.

“My Little Dirt Ball.”

Soobin, noticing your entranced state, tapped your shoulder.

“Flip to the back of the frame.”

Behind the picture frame was a sticky note attached. You plucked it off the back and squinted your eyes to read the small print.

Hey Y/N, I know you hate that picture, but it's my favorite, because the picture was taken on the day I met you. To continue our journey together, pull the back frame open, and insert the key inside to the orange door. Thank you, Y/N. Like I said earlier, we’ll get through this together, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Impatient to see Kai, you quickly, but carefully, pulled open the back frame, revealing a golden key. After grabbing the key and firmly wrapping your palm around it, you ran to the orange door and with shaky hands, inserted the key and twisted it. The door immediately swung open.

Behind the ajar door was a nervous Kai, still blessed with the same crooked smile as all those years ago. He was still rocking the same black pumpkin costume, and you were too mesmerized by his beauty to notice everyone else around him.

Soobin entered after you, and guided you to be right iinfront of Kai. You were now right in front of him, looking at his eyes, his gorgeous eyes, his presence, just, being with Kai. You couldn’t believe it. Your crush for almost a decade just confessed to you, in the most extra way possible. You loved it.

You looked up to see a huge banner that read: Y/N L/N, will you be myne?Around Kai was all your friends, all from different places:. Yeonjun and the gang, joined by Soobin, Haeun and your girls’ clique, the emo dude that you’re really chill with, the list goes on and on.

A beautiful voice broke you out from dreamland, to enter into yet another one.

“Y/N, will you be mine?”

You looked back at the boy you loved, and ran forward, practically throwing yourself onto him. You smashed your lips onto his, not caring that all of your friends were watching.

Kai was shocked at your sudden bold action, but quickly pulled himself together and kissed you back.

If you could describe the best feeling in the world, it was this. Fireworks erupted in your head, and all you could think about was those soft, plump lips and the boy who owned them. Kai put his arm around your waist, and the other behind your head, and you wrapped your arms around his neck.

You were doing it. You really were. You were kissing Kai Kamal Huening. In front of everyone, and you didn’t care.

It’s childish, one could say, to see two people dressed in child-like costumes practically making out with each other. However, in your opinion, that was what your love was. It was extra, childish, weird, and unlike any other typical highschooler’s romantic relationship. You wouldn’t change it for anything else.

BONUS

After the extremely extra confession took place successfully, the real Halloween party could finally commence. After all, Yeonjun hadn’t decorated his place for nothing. There was now an assortment of alcohol displayed everywhere, and suddenly the huge living hall didn’t seem so big anymore, as there were people from all over the town invited and it was getting quite cramped. Yeonjun, however, didn’t fail to notice the two of you at a small carpeted corner, just chatting. You had changed out of your pumpkin costume, and was now wearing Kai’s baby blue hoodie. Both of your hands were intertwined in his and they were being swung back and forth as you giggled about an inside joke that no one else would ever understand.

As Yeonjun quietly observed the two new lovebirds, a red object appeared in his peripheral vision. Looking down, he sighed in content. Her again.

“Yeonjun! Success, right? I knew we could do it!” She was crouching down, cutely looking at him in his eyes. She took his hand and smashed it against hers trying to imitate a high 5, while giving him a gleaming, enthusiastic smile. Yeonjun lifted the corners of his lips slightly, and squeezed her into a tight hug, earning a shocked gasp from her as she put her arms around his neck.

Choi Yeonjun better start planning out his confession soon.

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